


DNA is a Complicated Thing

by mharris



Category: Marvel (Comics), Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Family Bonding, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-25
Updated: 2018-05-25
Packaged: 2019-05-13 19:16:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14754702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mharris/pseuds/mharris
Summary: Carol squares up with the fact that she and Teddy are technically related. She's too young to have a teenage son and way too old for this.





	DNA is a Complicated Thing

    To be completely honest with herself, which, on principle, Carol tended to avoid doing, she had been avoiding this. She registered the information and then, quickly, subconsciously, buried it away where it need never see the light of day and she need never think about it.

 _To be honest_ , Carol would think in the half second between when it'd crop back up in her thoughts and before she'd shove it back in its dark mental hole, _it's really not my responsibility._

    But to be honest, Carol knew that was a damn dirty lie.

    So she quietly poked around on her own until she found an address, then carried the address in her coat pocket for a full month, only to remember it after pulling trash out of it and finding the paper smooth from worrying. Then, with a sudden brash resolve that she felt comfortable in, simply got up and walked out of her apartment.

    The neighborhood is Upper East Side, and Carol feels so out of place that she wonders if the neighbors peeking out of the windows can tell. She double checks the address, then with one last look around, maybe for some life threatening distraction that needs her immediate attention, she pockets the paper again, and climbs the steps.

    The door bell is a soft sound, and it sparks the uproar that accompanies children. Youthful shouting increases, then drops suddenly, then the door opens a crack. A small face looks up at her, another peers over the shoulder of the first.

    "Can I help you?" the first kid asks.

    Carol looks down at these boys, couldn't be older than eleven, and is a little taken off guard. No one told her about siblings.

    "I'm looking for uh, Teddy?" Carol says.

    The boys peer up at her, scrutinizing her, sizing her up. She wants to be offended, but her expression bears a closer semblance to confusion than anger. Suddenly the door is jerked open, and the two boys fall back a step as they look up at a woman, one hand on the door, the other at her hip.

    The woman looks Carol up and down, not in an antagonizing way, but in a simple surveillance. "The boys are studying, heroing can wait until after finals." she says plainly.

    Carol has to give it to the woman, not many people would so blatantly pushing saving the day aside. But she supposed everyone had their own coping mechanisms for dealing with heroes in the family.

    "I actually just want to talk. No day saving." Carol says. "Oh, uh, and, just Teddy?"

    The woman gives her a closer look, then "Are you related?"

    Carol feels like her skin is about to jump off her bones. As if a jolt of electricity had just run through her veins, turning her hot and cold all at once. She feels her spine stiffen just marginally.

    "It's complicated." Carol manages to get out.

    "It always is," she says, and holds open the door. "Go get Teddy," she says to the pair at her side, who race off together around living room. Carol steps in, and the door shuts softly behind her.

    "I'm Rebecca," the woman offers her hand, "Kaplan."

    "Carol Danvers," Carol says, taking Rebecca's hand.

    "I know."

    Carol wonders briefly just how much older Rebecca is than her, it couldn't be much, and here she is in this woman's living room asking after her _sons_. Boys that are young enough they could be her own children (maybe, if you stretch), and she has more in common with _them_ than with this woman who couldn't be more than five years older than herself. The incredulity of the situation hits Carol like a wave, and she feels old, and tired, and really, very silly.

    The raucous clamor of two young boys distracts her enough that she's able to muffle those thoughts. The pair came barreling down the hallway and around the corner to the kitchen, giggling the whole way. Carol raised an eyebrow, but her expression melted as she looked back down the hallway. Teddy stood at the mouth of the hallway, Billy just over his shoulder, both wearing matching looks of shock.

    "Is everything alright, boys?" Rebecca Kaplan asked.

    "Oh yeah," Billy said, shaking out of it first. "I mean, everything _is_ alright, isn't it?" he asked Carol.

    Carol nodded immediately. "Oh yeah, I'm here on a social visit, really." She turned to Teddy, "Do you have a few minutes? Maybe enough for a walk around the block?"

    Teddy looked quickly to the clock on the wall, then to Rebecca, who nodded. He shrugged, then nodded. Billy put a hand on his arm, then let go. Teddy crossed the living room silently, picked up a coat, and then walked out behind Carol.

    The door shut on a frowning Rebecca Kaplan, and at the bottom of the steps Carol stood watching the closed door as Teddy pulled his jacket on properly, then began to fiddle with it.

    "Are you normally this quiet?" Carol asked.

    "Not really," Teddy said at last. "But I guess I'm a little nervous."

    "What for?"

    Teddy shrugged. "Why are you?"

    Carol crinkled her nose at him, but said nothing. "I'm not... really sure what I wanted to say, coming here." Carol says after a pause. "I just knew I needed to."

    "A hero's instinct _is_ their first weapon." Teddy says. He scuffs a shoe, runs a hand through his hair, burrows both hands in his pockets, and raises both shoulders just to drop them with a heavy sigh. He looks up at Carol shyly, and sees her smirking over at him.

    "Rogers said you kids were really into the Avengers gig but, that was not enough preparation for this." Carol saysbehind a smile. "I don't bite. I do a lot of things, but biting is not one of them."

    Teddy shrugs, "We may be Avengers, sorta, but we still don't just hang out at the Avengers mansion. You guys are still just… heroes to us."

    That hits Carol right in her chest, and Teddy peeks up at her again from under his lashes, and she smiles at him again but she knows it isn't the same because he doesn't look away again. Teddy's shoulders relax into something a little more comfortable looking, and Carol nods down the street for them to start walking.

    It's not winter but it's cold, because that's how New York works, and Carol has her suit on under her jacket but it's not quite enough and there's a cool spot just at the bottom of her spine that won't become a shiver just yet. She rolls her shoulders and breaths deep.

    "I don't know what I'm doing here." Carol says. "I don't. Most adults don't, I want you to know," she looks over at Teddy for a brief second, "Adults looks like they know what they're doing and what they're supposed to do but they really don't most of the time. Don't think we ever do, and don't expect yourself to have all the answers magically over night once you become an adult. A lot of life is trial and error."

    She looks side long at Teddy who's smiling, but nodding. Something tells her he already knows all this. Maybe it's the lack of shock, but mostly it's because he's got that knowing smile other adults wear when they talk about this. It worries Carol. Teddy is way too young to be an adult.

    "I…" she starts, "I don't know what I am to you either, but Mar-Vell ties us together, so I think we ought to stick together in some way. I want you to know you're not alone, I guess."

    Teddy nods, "I'm not. I have my team, I have Billy, and his whole family. It's quite extensive, really." Teddy looks up, but very carefully not at Carol at all, "There are days where I feel more alone than before I had all those people in my life, but bad days come and go. They always will, and in the end, I do still have everyone."

    Carol feels a weight in her chest. Like maybe all her organs got soaked with water and they're weighing down.

    "I'm glad," Carol says. She means it too. She didn't even think to worry about something like that until he assured her he had it handled. The kid had a hard part handed to him, she should have thought about that. But that wasn't it. "But can any of them tell you about Kree anatomy?"

    Teddy's head snaps up, face the perfect picture of shock. He looked up at her, blinking in the overcast light.

    "Don't spend much time thinking about your father's powers, do you?" Carol says, self-satisfaction readable on her face.

    Teddy began walking again, silent a moment, "Honestly, no."

    Carol nods. "I don't know how much of your DNA is Kree versus how much is skrull, doubt it's an even mix. Plus with that shapeshifting ability thrown in, I can't imagine what two different cat scans from you would look like. But, I know after _my_ accident, I went through things that were twelve different kinds of confusing."

    Carol stops, she can't really put together what she wants to convey without sounding incredibly weird, so she takes a breath.

    "I," she starts, then restarts, "If your father were alive, this would be his talk," she says slowly. "But he's not. In some way, he left both of us. If you're interested in learning about that side of you, I'm here. _I_ didn't have anyone, but you don't have to do it by yourself like I did and isn't that what parents are supposed to be there for?"

    Carol stops fully on the sidewalk and turns to look at Teddy. He's all of seventeen and just as tall as she is and he looks every bit his father. Except maybe for the earrings.

    "I guess I'm here to be whatever kind of mentor you need, sure," Carol shrugs. "But more than that I'm here to tell you that you have someone here who… is in the same boat as you. You're not alone. We're in this together, whatever it is."

    "The _Mar-Vell shaped my life and isn't around to help me sort it out_ club?" Teddy asks with an easy laugh.

    Carols guesses he's been dealing with an absent father for a lot longer than she's been dealing with an absent alien. Maybe they can learn from each other. Carol smiles.

    "Yeah." she says. "We're bound together, through weird DNA and a missing Kree Captain."

    Teddy smiles too, they they start walking again.

    After a moment of silence, Teddy gets out, "How much do I need to know about Kree Anatomy?" with only minimal blush.

    Carol grins, "Well, if you _do_ have Kree anatomy, you have a third lobe in your brain that enables flight that might pose possible health risks. Though with your shapeshifting abilities, I don't know if it actually will?"

    "I have, what?"

    "A flight lobe,"

    "That's the weirdest."

    "It's how I fly. Have _you_ ever flown?"

    "With, I have wings?"

    "Ugh. We're gonna find out if you can fly on your own, and if you can, the first thing on our list of things to do is flight lessons."

    Teddy was looking up at Carol incredulously, and Carol realised she had actually rolled her eyes. She watched Teddy try to suppress a laugh.

    "Flying without wings," he said. "Sounds terrifying."

    "It's really fun, honestly." Carol couldn't stop her smile. She was awful fond of flying in the first place though, so she might be biased.

    "Thanks-" Teddy hesitated. "Hey, uh, genetically what are we?"

    Carol blanked, "I mean, I do have the same genetic material as one of your parents, so genetically, a parent? I guess."

    "Would that make you my mom? I have too many of those, you'd make number three." Teddy actually laughed at that.

    Carol laughed too, "Okay, genetically, I have your dad's DNA, so, how about father?"

    Teddy nods, "Okay. Thanks dad."

    Carol laughs again, loud and clear.

    "We'll have to talk to your guardian about having father-son bonding time then." she said, shoving him with her shoulder.

    Teddy's laughing, and Carol's laughing, and she wonders why she ever worried about Teddy. Maybe she was more worried about herself. But Teddy seems to think okay of her, so that must be okay then. Teddy wipes his face with the back of his sleeve and Carol thinks they'll both be just fine.

**Author's Note:**

> Nobody talks about this. Nobody fucking talks about this ever. Why are more people not concerned with the fact that Carol MotherFucking Danvers is related to Teddy Altman? Why am I the only one? Why


End file.
